Curb Records Celebrates 50 Years

Curb Records, founded in 1963 by Mike Curb (while he was a student at California State University), is celebrating 50 years in the music business. Born with American ingenuity, Curb Records’ independent spirit lives on. In celebration, Curb Records is announcing its 50 albums over 50 years feature on iTunes today. To see it click here: http://bit.ly/Curb50

In 1969, Curb merged his young label with MGM Records and became the President of MGM. Under his reign, he boosted MGM’s war chests with a litany of hits, some of which he produced. His signings brought a new emphasis on Nashville-based artists including Kenny Rogers and the First Edition, Hank Williams Jr., Don Gibson, Mel Tillis, Ray Stevens, and Eddy Arnold.

During the same period, Mike Curb went on to receive the Billboard Overall Producer of the Year Award, and he acquired the highly coveted BMI Award for writing Hank Williams Jr’s first No. 1 single, “All For The Love Of Sunshine.”

In the ’80s, Curb Records signed such emerging artists as Lyle Lovett, The Judds, Don Phil Everly, Sawyer Brown, Chris Hillman’s Desert Rose Band, Jeffrey Steele’s band Boy Howdy, The Bellamy Brothers, Ronnie McDowell, Hal Ketchum and The Righteous Brothers who delivered the triple platinum-selling album and single “Unchained Melody.”

Throughout the ’90s, Curb Records continued to establish ground as an independent force to be reckoned with. Tim McGraw‘s album Not A Moment Too Soon went on to become one of McGraw’s top selling albums to date. Additional milestones for Curb in the ’90s included the signing of teenage superstar LeAnn Rimes, whose single “Blue,” became an industry phenomenon that crossed multiple genres.

Curb’s publishing interests have scored more than 100 ASCAP, BMI and SESAC award winning songs including the first record in Billboard history to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard Country Chart – Garth Brooks‘ “More Than A Memory.” History was in the making when Curb published and released Lee Brice’s record, “Love Like Crazy” which was Billboard’s No. 1 record of the year in 2010 and the longest-running song in the history of the Billboard chart. Curb recently co-published “Crazy Girl” by the Eli Young Band, which was the 2012 ACM Song Of The Year and Billboard’s most played song of 2011.

At the launch of the 21st century Curb Records had established one of the strongest country rosters in Nashville. Superstar artists such as Tim McGraw, LeAnn Rimes, Jo Dee Messina, Hank Williams Jr., Wynonna, Lyle Lovett, Clay Walker, Trick Pony, and Rodney Atkins were consistently pushing out hit product. In 2001, and for the first time in the history of music business, Curb Records became the first independent label to be named Billboard’s Country Music Label of the Year.

Building on the success of country, Curb expanded throughout the new millennium to play a major role in the contemporary Christian genre with artists such as multi-award winning “Female Artist of the Year” Natalie Grant, multi-Dove winning group Selah, Plumb, MIKESCHAIR, Michael English, and Nicol Sponberg all producing hits.

New projects still ahead in the coming year include new releases from LeAnn Rimes, Andy Gibson, Wynonna, Plumb, Rachel Holder, Michael English and more. Also in 2012, Curb revitalized subsidiary imprint Sidewalk Records which plans new music from Heidi Newfield, Clay Walker, Morgan Frazier, Dylan Scott, and a new duet between Tyler Dean and Ashley Gearing.

Mike Curb exclaims, “We’ve been successful in large part to our employees, our artist roster, radio and a huge passion for music that inspires people across the globe. We are forever up to the challenges of the next half century and look forward to expanding upon our success.”